The Arizona sentinel., 1887-07-02
Another Landmark Gone.

assertion that hFearly grapes rrIerfed to in the following editorial of the San | Francisco Chronicle, were sent from a vineyard in the Salt River valley near oGen:x. Now, we happen to know tirat those sels same grapes were grown in and shipped from one of our Yuma gardens; furthermore, we don't believe ! chat Phoenix vineyards could have shown ripe grapes ,.. the tine those were shipped. Ph@nix is justly en titled to the boom winch she is enjoy ing, but that is no reason why the Herald should manifest piggish dis pnsition towards it's neigAbors. Ad- vance wbat claims cyou may, hcwcver:- strengthen your boom by stealing somebody else's thunder, if you will, but the fact still remains that Yuma was the first in line with early fruits, and expects to s.Al.,, upon her or''' merits, Nithcu5, at any time, attempt ing to detract from the just merits of her neighbors. If it will be any re lief to the Herald, we will state that party in Yuma holds personal letter from MT. De Young, of the Chronicle, thanking him for the grapes referred to.
 Of Arizona, the Chronicle says:
 "The coming generation will stud,: their maps and seosraPhies in vain for the Great Auarlcan desert, which the present generation was taught to be- i;e7e in as i.nplicitly as iu the Rocky mountains or Lake Superior. The Great American desert has been like a mirage, continually receding before the aGSance Of t,.o traveller and giving place to fertile valleys and hillsides.
 Of late years We have had, or thought we had, the Great American desert securely located in Arizona. We have heard wondroas tales of the vast stretches of sand where only horned toads and Gila monsters could live, of the square miles of cactus, of arid, rainless plairs, and bare and rugged mountains, of rivers that never had any water in them, and of the dizzy heights to which the mercury attained, and we smiled proud and satisfied smile and thought to ourselves that the Great American desert was at last fixed where there was no escape for It and no gainsaying it's existence.
 Alas for the vanity of human ex pectations and belief Our last land mark is gone. Arlzona has gone to work and become not only producer of cereals and similar crops, but Of fruit, and of early fruit at that. Only  yesterday grapes were exhibited here in San Francisco which grew on ArI- zona vines; and which were equal in all respects to the early products of our own vineyards; and, height of pre- sumption, an official of railroad run nlng from Maricopa towards Phoenix actually says that the Salt River val ley is certain to ac the great compet itor of Los Angeles, being equally fla vored as to climate, soil and an abun- dance of water for irrigation purposes, and that the season for all fruits is from ten to thirty days earlier. More over. this bold man says that valley is twenty-four hours nearer eastern mar kets, which is a matter of importance when the shipping of green fruits is to be considered.
 Jnst stop anu chii.i;. The very idea os comparing AflZona or any portion of it with Los Angeles sounds almost like irreverence; and as for shipping green fruit from there to the east, the imaginative genius of Haggard or Stevenson never devised a flight of fancy as wild as that would have been considered only a very few years ago But We must draw the line at climate. We may consent, reluctantly, to con cede equality in soil and irrigation and fruits, Gut we nail our flag to the mast on the proposition of climate. Is Arizona to leave us nothing2 Are all the illusions of our childhood to be fdispelieQ at once and so rudelyl Is California to be eclipsed by Arizonal
 Eat soit soe5. Thirty years ago, or little more, we Ourselves were i'm porting flour from Chili and wheat from Oregon, because it was thought we could not raise wheat in California. | Ten years ago tine prevalent idea of